PlaneBalance| Gulfstream aerospace
UX Designer/Researcher
TEAM MAKEUP
Project Manager, Product Owner, 4 Developers, UX Co-facilitator
PROBLEM
PlaneBalance is an iPad app that helps pilots calculate the weight and balance of an aircraft to ensure safe takeoff and landing. It’s an important tool that is often used to record and report to the FAA.
This app was due for a total redesign, as it was very dated and clunky. The business also wanted to look into combining the functionality of this app with another popular app from our suite.
DELIVERABLES
User interviews
Journey maps
Persona creation
Research synthesis
CHALLENGE
As a non-pilot, it was difficult in the beginning to understand why, when and how this app is used. It’s quite challenging to design an app you don’t understand. So the first task was to fully understand the app and how users interact with it.
ACTION
I was tasked with leading a 4-week Discovery phase to look at how we might combine PlaneBalance with another app in our suite.
PROCESS
Journey Mapping Session
In order to better understand the technical complexities of the apps and see where the two apps may naturally fit together in the pilot routine, myself and a UX colleague held a day long Journey Mapping session with the product team and three pilots. During this session, we had the pilots map out their touch points with the apps from beginning to end, noting how each step made them feel along the way.
I then took the physical stickies and translated them to digital versions in Figma, so that they could be shared with the rest of our distributed team.
Pilot Interviews
I was fortunate enough to be allowed access to about a dozen pilots during a customer on-site event. I prepared an interview sheet and had about 20 minutes to ask them questions in a group setting. Many of their answers were surprising and I think the most valuable insight was the consensus from the group that they had no desire for the apps to be combined.
Persona Creation
After collecting the qualitative research results from the Journey Map and user interviews, I was to identify 3 distinct user personas that represented contract pilots, non-contract pilots and U.S. government pilots (mustache added in response to feedback that he looked “too serious” 😂).
OUTCOME
After presenting the results of our discovery efforts, it was determined that the return on investment would not be worth the significant development effort of combining the two apps. This was a huge win because it showed how valuable discovery is in informing and validating the project prior to starting development. The project ended up being scaled down to focus only on updating the PlaneBalance app to current brand standards.
Wireframes and high-fidelity mockups were created in the Design phase that followed. Unfortunately, my time on this project was cut short due to COVID-19. I enjoyed being on the team and feel lucky to have worked on such an important and complex app!